XXXVI: The Adventurer
Regner, shortly after the events with the hare, called an assembly of his miniscule horde. He stood at the foot of a dune, with his two trusted captains Telson and Reiss backing him. He was smiling.
"We may not have caught those hares, but this was still a great victory," Regner announced, "They tried to attack us, and we were able to push them back with only one casualty! One! I saw the attackers; there were a good ten, maybe twelve of them. Yet we got them to retreat! And without great losses, too! I imagine, that when we actually do attack them, we will win without any trouble whatsoever!"
"Uhh… But we didn't kill any o' them," Reyla pointed out from the group.
"So? We got them to retreat!" Regner exclaimed, "You obviously know nothing about how war works! This is a great victory! Isn't that right, Telson?"
"O' course!" Telson affirmed, "It's like this one time, when—"
"See what I mean?" Regner interrupted, "A great victory! Now, I have begun to formulate a plan to rout these hares once and for all. Of course, I'm not going to explain it to you, because I can never know when I have a spy in my midst, but I'm still going to give you all jobs."
In the back of group Kleid and Yugu shivered. Regner had talked about a spy as if he had known about Limptail. It had to just be a coincidence, though.
"First off, I'm going to untie Schaeper. Reiss is going to be in charge of guarding him, since he's one of the few of you that I know I can trust. When we do attack, Schaeper's going to be leading the charge, as I already said." Regner glanced over at the stoat, who glared back at him. The warlord chuckled.
"I can do that, sire!" Reiss exclaimed, saluting, "Yew can count on me!"
"I know, Captain Reiss," Regner announced, smiling, "That's why you're one of my captains. Now, for the next thing. That stupid hare we have captured is bound to wake up soon. Telson is going to take a handful of you and guard him. Listen to what Telson says, because he's already been instructed as to how the plan is going to work, and knows what he's doing."
Reyla's mate, Karder, raised a paw. "Yer usin' too many big words! I don't know wot yer talkin' 'bout half the time!"
Regner shook his head. "If you think I'm bad, you should have seen my former tactician, Ballantyne. He'd have made your head explode with the words he used. Now, I'm going to use the rest of you to double the guard watching Salamandastron, so we don't have another attack like we did. This is a pretty simple plan I've got going, but as long as you all do what you're supposed to, it should work out perfectly. Are there any more questions?"
"Yeah, one," announced Murkeye, who hadn't yet been told by Kleid and Yugu that Jeld and the rest were still alive and attempting a rescue, "When the ship burnt, it took all o' our food with it. We're completely out of things ta eat."
"That isn't a problem," Regner replied, "Davian!"
The lizard poked his head out of the crowd, looking attentive. "What izz it, Your Eckzellenzy?" he asked, using the same title King Kirrent had told him to use when addressing a king or, in this case, a warlord.
"You're a good hunter, right?" Regner asked. Davian nodded. "Good. At the end of this beach is a forest. Go in there and catch enough food for all twenty of us."
Telson leaned over and whispered into Regner's ear. "That's a bit too much fer that one lizard, don'tcha think? Especially since he's got that peg leg an' all, it's gonna slow him down. I once knew a feller with a peg leg, he—"
"Okay, Telson's right," Regner interrupted, "That is a bit too much. I really don't want to spare any more soldiers, but I guess I'll have to. You three!" He pointed at Skrobb and two weird-looking characters that just happened to be standing next to him, "You'll go with Davian. Bring back enough food for all of us, you got that?"
Skrobb sighed. "Yeah, I got that, Regner." The rat looked at the two that he had been assigned to go with. They both had goofy expressions on their faces, and one had a very creepy glass eye. What luck.
"That's great," replied the weasel, "Now, everybeast, get to your stations. If Telson picks you to help him watch that one hare, then go with him. If not, then you're going to stand guard duty, you got that? I don't want anybeast just lazing around. If I see you sleeping or not doing what you're supposed to, I'll just have you join Schaeper as the leader of our charge. Any questions? Good. Now, go!"
There was a shuffle as the creatures all went to do Regner's bidding. Telson picked out seven of them rapidly and moved them over to their position near Colonel Caldwell. Reiss severed Schaeper's bonds with a small knife, along with two other soldiers Regner considered fairly loyal. The stoat was given a small sword, but he was carefully watched on all sides in case he tried anything funny. The rest all moved up to the tops of the dunes, watching Salamandastron intently.
Regner pulled Wemys out of the group before the young stoat got a chance to move to the top of the dune and stand guard. "What do ya need, Regner?" he asked overly casually, although the tone of sadness was clearly apparent in his voice.
"Is something wrong?" the weasel asked, "You don't look well."
"Why do you care?" Wemys asked, "I told you, I'm not a good fighter, like Percival was. You should just leave me alone, if you knew what was good for your horde. If you rely on me, I'll just mess up everything for you." While there was a lot of truth in his words, and Wemys knew it, he was really saying it so he wouldn't have to face Regner again and possibly- no, probably- blow the cover of Limptail. Yugu and Kleid still hadn't told him the whole story, but Wemys already had a good idea of what was going on with Jeld and the rest.
"Could you stop pretending that you're horrible?!" Regner suddenly snapped, a large degree of anger in his voice, "I know you can't be as bad as you say, especially considering how great your brother was!! You know what I think?! I think you're doing this on purpose, just to spite me!! You idiot!! I was nice enough to let you go, and you're just going to be useless for me!! Well, I have an idea on how to get you to fight better!!"
Regner punched Wemys in the side of the head, then grabbed him by the ear and pulled him over to where Reiss and Schaeper were. Wemys, completely taken aback by Regner's severe mood swing, had no choice but to let himself be pulled there.
"When you're leading the charge alongside Schaeper here, you'll learn to fight pretty quickly, I imagine!!" Regner delivered a large kick to Wemys' side while simultaneously throwing him down on the floor. "I've had enough of you, you stupid coward!! Reiss!! Guard him like you were Schaeper, and keep his sniveling worthless carcass out of my sight!! I tried to help him, I tried to be patient, but he is driving me crazy!! GAAH!!"
Regner stormed away. Reiss shrugged. "I ain't even seen him act like that afore," the short weasel said, mostly to himself.
Wemys suddenly found himself angry, too. "I hate you!" he shouted after Regner as Reiss and the others restrained him, "Everything is all your fault!!" Regner was the reason Conrad was dead… He was the reason Limptail was dead… He was the reason everything had gone wrong, him and his stupid mutiny.
Regner laughed humorlessly. "You sound so stupid," he muttered. Why couldn't Ballantyne and Deathblaze come back to him? Why did he have to have these cheap… imitations? When he had gotten his revenge on Salamandastron, he'd make them his slaves. All of them.
Wemys was normally cool, calm, and collected; the polar opposite of his brother. Of course, his family had always been cool, calm, and collected. It was Deathblaze who had been the exception. But now Wemys felt a lot like his brother. He was angry, his thoughts were racing, and he was confused. Very confused. All his friends were dead, and it was all because of that stupid Lord Regner the Magnificent.
Without even thinking about what he was doing, the stoat sent a well-aimed kick in the direction of Reiss. The short weasel doubled over in pain. The other two guards went for him, hoping to tackle him or knock him out. Wemys tripped one and pushed him back into the other, with both of them falling in a tangled heap.
Then the stoat began to run. He didn't even know where he was running; he was just running away as fast as he could. He had to get away from Regner, the devious poison weasel that had been the end for Conrad and Limptail and the rest. He had no idea that Schaeper was running behind him, also looking for escape. He also had no idea when a pair of bolas thrown by Buvul pretty much took Schaeper's head off, nor did he have any idea when the remains of Schaeper's brains splattered his back.
Telson was hot on Wemys' heels. He jumped over Schaeper's nearly headless body (another story to add to the list, Telson thought, although Schaeper wasn't really a nice feller), then leapt at Wemys. He missed completely, hitting the sand with a thud. With a sweep of his paw, he tried to entangle Wemys' legs, but the stoat had already gotten too far ahead.
Regner was furious. Not only was Wemys escaping, but Schaeper was now dead. He would have been good for leading the charge. He'd never had guessed that Buvul could actually use the bolas he picked out. Then he saw one last thing that could bring Wemys back alive.
"Skrobb!! STOP THAT STOAT!!" he shouted as loud as he could at the four-creature scavenging party that hadn't even made it to the forest yet. Wemys was unwittingly running right towards them!
Skrobb, Davian, and the two other weird characters (one was a ferret named Roth; the other one, with the glass eye, was a rat appropriately titled Glasseye) all heard Regner's shouts. Wemys was running straight in their direction, completely unarmed. Skrobb sighed and drew his cutlass, then ordered his two new lackeys to do the same.
"Ain't that the one stoat that Regner was givin' all that special attention to?" asked Roth, readying his scimitar, which used to belong to Conrad.
"Yeah, I think it is," replied Glasseye as he gripped his own sword, "Wonder wot happened ta make him run off like that. Regner must've gotten on his nerves or sumthin'."
"Well, wuddn't he one of those that Regner pulled off the ship afore it burnt down?" Roth said back, "Maybe it has sumthin' ta do with that! Cripes, maybe sumthin' big is goin' down!"
"Will yew two stop gossiping an' get ready ta fight?" Skrobb snapped.
None of them noticed Davian behind them. Regner realized what was happening, but by that time, it was too late. The lizard suddenly seized Skrobb, lifted him up (which was no small feat; Skrobb wasn't the lightest rat in the world) then threw him down. Roth and Glasseye both exchanged terrified glances.
Wemys dashed by them, being sure to kick Roth as he dashed by. Without hesitation, Davian ran too. Wemys had saved his life, a long time ago, and Davian would remain loyal to him much more than he would ever be loyal to Regner.
"Cripes!" shouted Roth as he fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Glasseye looked on in amazement.
"After them, you idiots!!" screamed Regner, still very far away, "Bring them back alive!!!"
It took a few moments for Glasseye to mobilize. He turned and ran after the two escapees. Skrobb followed him, muttering angrily over his bad fortune. Finally, Roth got up and trailed in the back, limping a little.
Back at the small camp, Regner began to curse extremely loudly.
---
Curvetail slowly walked down a sand dune and entered the tight circle where the remains of Conrad's crew were sitting. He didn't have any good news to share, and everybeast could tell just by looking at his face.
"Limptail's dead," Curvetail announced frankly.
"Regner found him out?" Crowley asked.
"No," Curvetail replied, "That's the idiotic part. Limptail was doing his job perfectly. Nobeast was even giving him a second thought. He managed to tell Kleid and Yugu, and I guess he was going to go for Wemys next, but then an arrow flies out of nowhere and snuffs him out quicker than it takes to snap yer fingers. It was fired by some stupid hare from the Long Patrol. Then the hare jus' leaves. It was as if he were jus' tryin' to mess us up."
"At least Regner didn't find us out," Jeld said, shrugging. He was fiddling with some random toy he had fished out of his giant bag of things. The golden coin rattled around in his mouth as it struck his teeth.
"That's the only good news I can really tell ya," Curvetail muttered angrily, "Cuz Wemys an' Davian are gone. They ran off, afore Kleid even got a chance ta tell 'em we were still alive."
"Great," Crowley muttered, "Davian was one of our best fighters."
"Wot are we gonna do now?" asked Rebule nervously, "We can't fight Regner now, there's only, uh, thirteen of us! An' thirteen is a bad number!" The ferret fidgeted around, grinding his teeth.
"Learn ta count, bonehead," Curvetail snapped, "There's twelve o' us, not thirteen, an' there's no such thing as bad numbers anyways. Now, we need ta figger out wot we're gonna do next."
There was a silence. Nobeast knew what they should do next. In the background, Swiss played around with his trick dagger. Jeld clamped down on his golden coin. Crowley bit a nail.
"Jus' great," Curvetail muttered.
---
It grew dark. Skrobb and the others still hadn't returned with Wemys and Davian. Regner paced around angrily. He had called off the plan to draw out the Long Patrol. He didn't want to attempt to wipe them out while he was missing five of his number, which was about one-fifth of his total force. If only Ballantyne were there. With his ingenious tactician at his side, he had always been unstoppable. He had even conquered Salamandastron, albeit for a short time, with the ferret's help. But, alas, Ballantyne was dead now, murdered by those stupid hares. All he had for a replacement were his two loyal captains Telson and Reiss. Neither could be considered idiots, but they weren't any help when it came to making plans. Regner had had to come up with them all himself.
There was one bright side to the incident with Wemys, though: Regner now knew that he could fight. He had taken out three armed guards with his bare paws. All he had to do was get him angry. It all made sense. Deathblaze had almost always been angry, and thus, Deathblaze had almost always been a stellar fighter. If Regner could somehow make Wemys almost always angry as well, then he would be a stellar fighter as well. But how could Regner make him angry? The weasel thought about it. He could tell him how the Long Patrol piteously slew his brother, but that probably wouldn't work. Wemys didn't seem like he had been too attached to Deathblaze, and Regner didn't blame him. The only creature who ever had been friends with the insane stoat had been Ballantyne, and Ballantyne was pretty eccentric himself.
"How 'bout that Buvul?" Reiss suddenly said. Both he and Telson were standing close by, watching Regner as he plotted things out in his head. "I'd never have thought that he would be so good with those bolas."
"Aye, I once knew a rat named Strewart, an' he used bolas. Nice feller, too, until he got his eyes gouged out an'—"
"Yeah, I guess Buvul's pretty good with those things," Regner muttered, only really speaking so he could cut off Telson. He didn't care about Buvul. Sure, it would be nice having a creature in his army who could attack at range, but he only had one pair of bolas. After he attacked once, he wouldn't really be able to attack again, unless he retrieved the bolas somehow. No, all Regner really cared about was Wemys. All he needed was some sort of key, one that would unlock the inner Deathblaze in him. But what could that key be? If Ballantyne were there, he might have been able to hypnotize the stoat, just like he had for Deathblaze…
"'Ey, Lord Regner!" shouted Reyla from far away, "That hare is wakin' up!"
Regner smiled. Finally, a little something that could take his mind off of Wemys. The weasel briskly marched over to the tied-up hare, followed by his two captains. He dismissed Reyla and her mate, who were acting as the hare's guards.
"You!" snapped Caldwell, "I'll kill you! Before I die, I swear it!"
"Yeah, maybe you will. Probably you won't. In case you haven't noticed, you're all tied up," Regner pointed out, "The rest of your troops tried to rescue you. We killed most of them. About five are left, locked up in that dumb mountain. It's only a matter of time before we kill the rest of them and conquer Salamandastron once and for all."
"That's a lie," Caldwell muttered, although it didn't sound like he believed what he was saying, "Tabbins isn't an idiot. He wouldn't try anything so dumb."
"So, what would Tabbins try, then?" Regner asked.
"Well, Tabbins is a good tactician," the colonel replied, "He'd probably… Wait. I'm not telling you anything."
Regner frowned. "Then I'll just have to torture it out of you. Although you hares seem like you wouldn't really submit to torture… I have no idea why. Oh, well. It'll still be fun to watch you scream."
The weasel smiled devilishly. Caldwell responded by spitting in his face.
---
Davian and Wemys had stopped for the night. They knew that Skrobb and his two lackeys were following them, but the pair had left them in the dust long ago. Now, Wemys had a splitting headache and was curled up in a bed of leaves, moaning pitifully. Davian sat by a small fire, warming his claws.
Wemys felt ill all over after he had come back to his senses. He knew he had just acted exactly like Percival, and that thought hurt his head. Well, not entirely like Percival. Percival would have tried to kill the entire horde before running away. But that didn't help to ease his headache.
Davian didn't know where they were going or why. He figured Wemys knew. As of late, he had relied on furry creatures to give him directions and lead him. It seemed like an eternity since Kirrent had showed up and taken over, though… Almost a million seasons ago…
He was the last one left, of course. Regner had said that Kalzmar and Corzon were dead, and all the others must have died back at Redwall. It was weird feeling. Davian never would have thought, a season or so ago when he was standing in the court of King Kirrent, receiving orders to check out a red fort, that it would eventually end with the death of every creature he ever knew.
Davian's thoughts wandered, like the usually did. Now he was on an adventure of sorts. Traipsing through the forest, running away from the bad creatures… It was like some sort of weird quest. He was Davian the Adventurer now. Or something.
Then Davian went to sleep, ignoring Wemys' moaning.
The pair walked for a few more days, wandering aimlessly. Wemys got over his headache, but he still didn't talk much, despite Davian's myriad of efforts to start some sort of conversation. The lizard didn't really know Wemys or any other members of Conrad's crew, even though he had been traveling with them for over a season.
Then, the adventure (at least to Davian) stopped abruptly. Wemys and Davian found themselves standing in front of a huge black castle in the middle of a large field. The fortress seemed completely deserted at first glance. Surrounding it were all kinds of pits and holes and mounds of dirt, with junk and trash scattered everywhere.
"What is this place?" Wemys asked. The main gate was covered with graffiti, random splatters of paint that made no sense. Several windows had been smashed in, and others had been painted over. Weird wooden structures clung to the top of the roof, all odd contraptions that neither had ever seen before.
Outside the castle, ripped and torn pieces of parchment fluttered about in the light breeze. Wemys picked one up and examined it. He wasn't a good reader, but he could make out some of the words. He let the parchment go, getting no meaning from what it said.
"What izz that?" Davian pointed at two words scrawled on the front wall of the castle in black paint. Wemys knew both words.
"It says… Castle Regner," The stoat replied, "That means…"
Suddenly, a huge boulder shot out of nowhere and slammed into the ground right in front of them. From up on the roof came maniacal, insane laughter.
Author's Note: I believe this is like the only real cliffhanger in the story. . I normally like to resolve things within their respective chapters, but I made an exception here. Next chapter, you'll figure out who the laughing crazy guy is, and it's somebody you've seen before... Although it's probably not who you think it is. :O But yeah, the next chapter is also one of my favorite chapters in the story, as I said last chapter. It's jam-packed with allusions and stuff.
And, of course, we're rapidly reaching the climax. There are absolutely no new characters introduced after this chapter, minor or otherwise (with one exception of a character in the Epilogue). Also, you aren't going to see Regner and the others until Chapter 39, really. The next two chapters are pretty much complete Wemys and Davian, along with the returning character.